Well, if your name is Ken Thomson, you might spend it all on a single painting. And then give it away – along with the rest of your art collection, valued at $300 million, to the Art Gallery of Ontario, whose staff are, I’m sure, dancing in the streets right now.
Thomson, who stepped down in May as chairman of Thomson Corp., stood at 13th place in a ranking by Forbes magazine earlier this year of the world’s wealthy. At the time, his family stake in Thomson Corp. was valued at more than C$24 billion.
But unlike most moguls, Thomson is legendary for his low profile and parsimonious ways, and is reputed to use store coupons and buy bread in bulk when it goes on sale.
Thomson is donating nearly 2,000 works, including paintings and a collection of rare European art objects dating from the middle ages to the mid-nineteenth century.
Now, granted, he’s got more money than most of us could even count, let alone spend. I guess it must have come from all that penny-pinching on milk purchases. That does it: that’s now officially my new savings strategy.